\nYou grab a rock, ready to bash him over the head. \n\nYou get yourself in position...\n\n[[Now!|now]]
\nYou run out of your burning house. Before you can fight back, before you can drop your weapons, before you can even surrender, the soldiers open fire on you and your father.\n\nYou both fall to the ground, clutching your wounds. Your father stares into your eyes as it all goes [[black|black]]\n\n
\nYou take a few steps away before you hear the lieutenant bark an order to a nearby soldier. There is the roar of an AK-47 and then [[everything goes black...|black]]\n\n
\nYou decide that it probably wasn't your mother screaming. Hopefully you can just wait it out in the jungle and the men will leave.\n\nGunshots ring out sporadically as you hunker down, fighting the feelings of guilt in your stomach.\n\nIt's getting dark now and you're getting awfully hungry.\n\n[[Set up camp for the night|camp]]\n\n[[Go over to the next village, looking for food|nextvillage]]\n\n
\nShhh... \n\n[[quietly....|quietly]]\n\n
\nYou make it to your house and quietly sneak in through the back. Your father is there, crouched under the window, thumbing bullets into his rifle.\n\n\n[[Leave the house and surrender at the center of town|surrender]]\n\n[[Abandon your family and disappear into the jungle|brush]]\n\n[[Grab a knife and prepare to defend your house with your father|defend]]\n
\nYou start to panic, fearing for your mother's life. You run to the village and see dozens of soldiers there, armed with AK-47s.\n\n"Mother!", you shout, just in time to see soldiers pointing a gun at her head. She's crying. She looks up at you and screams at you to run.\n\nOne of the soldiers turns and sees you coming out of the jungle. He hesitates, unsure of whether to aim his gun at you or not.\n\n[[Throw up your hands and surrender|surrender]]\n\n[[Turn around and run back into the brush|brush2]]\n\n
\nYou go into the city and meet with some UN peacekeepers. You tell them your story and they take you in. \n\nThey tell you that it won't be easy, but they will take care of you and they will give you a better life.\n\nYou'll spend the next several years going through rehabilitation and deprogramming. You'll miss your family, both your original one and your second one. Your dreams will never quite be the same, but you will emerge from this a better person and you will rise above the things you did in the jungle.\n\n... The End.
\nThere is no food to be found anywhere... \n\nIt's time to give up and [[find some soldiers to join|joinfood]]\n\n
\nYou decide this is your life now. You want the constant adrenaline rush and the feeling of power. You look down. Your shirt is stained with blood and your hands are covered in ash and gunpowder.\n\nYour old life in the village feels so far away now.\n\nYou decide to stay with your new family. It feels like you'll be with them for a long, long time...\n\n... The End.\n\n
\nYou are a nine year old boy in Liberia.\n\nIt's a sunny Tuesday afternoon and you've been sent to get water for your mother and father.\n\nOn your way back to the village, you hear a gunshot and lots of shouting. \n\n[[Hide in the brush|brush]]\n\n[[Sneak into the village to find your parents|village]]
\nYou decide that it's better to hide. It's the only way to stay safe.\n\nYou lay low in the dirt, camoflauging yourself as much as possible.\n\nYou hear a cry from the village. Maybe it was your mother. You hope it wasn't, but maybe...\n\n[[Hurry to the village|village2]]\n\n[[Go deeper into the brush on your own|deeperbrush]]\n\n
\nYou sneak into the village. Scary men with guns seem to have taken over. There are dozens of them. They are going through the houses and lining everyone up in the center of town.\n\nYou can't see your parents from here.\n\n[[Try to get to your house|house]]\n\n[[Surrender and join the crowd|surrender]]
\nBullets smack into the dirt in front of you. You spin around and run back the way you came. Your mother's crying is cut short by a gunshot as you disappear into the jungle. The voices of the soldiers echo behind you. "Find him!", you hear them shout. \n\nA group of them are hunting you down so that you can't give away their position or warn any other villages.\n\n[[Hide deeper in the jungle|deeperbrush2]]\n\n[[Hide, hoping to catch one of the soldiers by surprise|trap]]\n\n[[Give up|surrender2]]\n
\nThey bring you to their hideout, where you see a group of women with blindfolds on. \n\nThey tell you that if you want to join them, you need to do the dirty work and execute their prisoners for them. They put an AK-47 in your hands and say the choice is yours.\n\n[[Agree to execute the prisoners|execute]]\n\n[[Take the gun and shoot the soldiers instead|shootback]]\n\n
\nYou make it to the neighboring village. There is another group of rebel soldiers there, going through exactly the same procedure you saw in your own village.\n\n[[Surrender|surrender3]]\n\n[[Go back into the jungle and camp for the night|camp]]\n\n
\nYou raise the rock over your head. The soldier turns around at the last possible moment, catching you with your arms raised. He reacts quickly, shooting you in the throat. \n\nIt doesn't take long before it all goes [[black...|black]]
\nYou tell the army that you are desperate for food and will do anything that is necessary to get regular meals.\n\nThey take one look at you and they can tell you are not lying. You are welcome to join their ranks. They need you to pass a test first, though. One of the soldiers takes you around the corner to where a group of blindfolded women are sitting on the ground. \n\nThe soldiers put an AK-47 in your hands and tell you to execute them to prove your loyalty.\n\n[[Execute the prisoners|execute]]\n\n[[Shoot at the soldiers instead|shootback]]\n\n
\nWithout any further warning, you are shot in the stomach. The soldiers walk away, leaving you to bleed to death on the ground. Slowly... everything goes [[black|black]]\n\n
\nYou take up a defensive position behind the door, clutching your knife closely. The sounds of gunfire and screaming erupt from the center of town. \n\nYour father peeks up through the window and fires several rounds from his rifle. From where you are, you see one of the enemy soldiers take a bullet in the side of his head and fall to the ground. Your father ducks back underneath the window.\n\nThe soldiers are shouting. They'll be closing in on your position now.\n\n[[Hole up in the house|stand]]\n\n[[Leave while you still can|leavehouse]]
\nYou call your father's name. He burst out of your house, firing his rifle. The soldier fires back, hitting both of you. All three of you fall to the ground, clutching your injuries.\n\nYou've been hit in the chest. The bullet has punctured your lung. Breathing gets harder and harder as it all goes [[black...|black]]\n\n
\nYou cover your tracks. They'll have a harder time finding you now.\n\nYou'll be needing food and water soon though. Your only option is to proceed to the [[next village|nextvillage2]]\n\n
\nThe lieutenant scoffs at you.\n\nThere is a loud noise next to your skull, then nothing but [[darkness|black]]\n\n
\nThey take you away from your village and to their hideout in the jungle.\n\nYou're now a child soldier. You've joined the group that took over your village and now you're one of them.\n\nIt's hard to sleep at night with the memories of what you had to do to join. You sometimes hope that your mother was able to escape somehow, but you'll never know for sure.\n\n[[I guess this is your life now|life]]
\n\nYou run into another cluster of troops. One of them hears you. Before you can take cover, they fire in a sweeping arc into the treeline.\n\nYou feel an instant of pain, then it all goes [[black...|black]]
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n..... The end.
Mr. Maloney
\nThe bloodlust is overpowering. You charge into battle, firing with surgical precision at every enemy you see. \n\nYou aren't even sure why they're enemies. They have weapons and they're pointing at you, so they have to be killed. The sound of every gunshot is music to your ears. \n\nYou shoot men, women, and children. None of these deaths mean anything anymore.\n\n[[Your group returns to camp victorious|rebelcamp]]\n\n
\nYou decide to help your father defend the house. He continues firing out the window. You put all your weight up against the door, just as you feel a soldier slam into it from the other side. Your father scrambles to help you hold it shut, while firing his rifle into the door. The pressure from the other side stops.\n\nYour ears are ringing, but you still hear shouting outside. There is the sound of glass breaking, then your house starts to go up in flames around you.\n\n[[RUN!|burninghouse]]\n\n
\nYou're absolutely starving by the time you reach the next village. You know something is wrong because you should have heard the sounds of people on your way here.\n\nThe village is deserted. There is only the lingering scent of battle and ashes in the center of town.\n\nYou're so hungry.\n\n[[Continue searching for food|searching]]\n\n[[Find the nearest rebel group and beg to join them for food|joinfood]]
\nOver the next few days, you learn the names of some of the men in the rebel group, as well as some of the children that tend to the camp. You are taken on raid missions to steal supplies from nearby depots and villages. \n\nSlowly, you start to realize that the lieutenant can be a pretty nice man sometimes. He's very loyal to his cause and his troops are very loyal to him. He treats his soldiers like friends of his and it feels like he would do anything he could to protect them.\n\nYou are well fed and there is an almost constant adrenaline rush. You feel powerful.\n\nOne day, the lieutenant comes to you with some brown powder and tells you to inhale it.\n\n[[Inhale|inhale]]\n\n
\nYou run for it, tripping and stumbling your way through the jungle as fast as you possibly can. \n\nThe distracted soldier doesn't see your escape, but now where will you go?\n\n[[Set up camp for the night|camp]]\n\n[[Continue running|continue]]\n\n\n
\nYou approach him from behind. \n\n[[Slowly...|slowly]]\n
\nYou put your hands above you head and come out, telling the soldiers that you give up and that you'll go quietly.\n\nThey quickly surround you.\n\n[[Agree to join the rebels|yes]]\n\n[[Refuse to join them|no]]\n\n
\nYou approach the soldiers and tell them that you surrender. You have nowhere else to go and you are willing to join them if that is what they want.\n\nThey nod, thrust an AK-47 into your hands, and tell you to execute as many of the prisoners as you can.\n\n[[Execute the prisoners|execute]]\n\n[[Fire the gun at the soldiers instead|shootback]]
\nYou inhale it. It's awful going up your nose. It burns.\n\nSuddenly though, you feel absolutely invincible. Your heart rate increases. You feel like you are the greatest soldier that ever lived. \n\n"Today, we attack a military outpost", the lieutenant tells you.\n\n[[Time to go to battle|war]]\n\n
\nYou feel terrible the next morning.\n\nYour friends are the same as ever though. They are smoking cigarettes and watching American action films while waiting for the scouts to get back.\n\nYou hear that the United Nations have sent peacekeepers to the nearby city.\n\n[[Seek out the peacekeepers|peacekeepers]]\n\n[[Stay with your group|group]]\n\n
\nYou fire into the crowd of prisoners. As you're firing, you notice other children from the village have been directed to do the same. The prisoners all fall to the ground silently.\n\nThe smoke clears. You feel sick.\n\nYou are now one of them. One of the soldiers.\n\nThey [[welcome you|soldierstart]]\n\n
\nWhen you get back to camp, you are hailed as a hero. Your fellow soldiers celebrate your valor in battle. At night, you all sit around the fire and drink deeply.\n\nStill, sleeping is the hardest part. \n\nYour [[dreams|dream]] are haunted.
\nYou rush out from behind a tree and grab his gun from the side. He pulls back on it, firing wildly into the woods behind you as he tries to yank it free from your hands. You feel his foot drive against your stomach and knock you away, sending you sprawling on your face on the floor of the jungle.\n\nBefore you can get back to your feet you hear a single gunshot and it all goes [[black|black]]\n\n
\nYou stumble upon a rebel hideout. There is a campsite, a huge pile of weapons and ammunition, and several children your age running around cooking and laboring.\n\nOne adult soldier sees you. He recognizes that you are a child, but not one of their recruits. Thinking you might be a spy, he immediately grabs his gun and opens fire on you.\n\n"Can't be too careful about children these days", you hear him say, as it all goes [[black|black]]\n
\nYou can see plumes of smoke overhead, no doubt from where your home used to be. \n\nThe soldiers are not far behind you. They're faster than you and they're following your tracks.\n\n[[There's no time. Keep moving deeper|deeperbrush3]]\n\n[[Try to cover your tracks|covertracks]]
\nYou surrender, putting your hands on your head. You are grabbed by the shoulders and marched to join the rest of the village. Your mother is on her knees in the center of town with several other crying women. You don't see your father anywhere.\n\nThe air smells like gunpowder, with a hint of something foul every now and then, whenever the wind picks up.\n\nA lieutenant dressed in military fatigues and a red hat announces that they need new recruits. You will be fed and taken care of if you join them and contribute to the war effort. If you refuse, they say you will be kicked out of the village.\n\n[[Join them|join]]\n\n[[Refuse|refuse]]\n
\nYou say that you will never join their army.\n\nThe lieutenant pauses for a moment, then shakes his head and tells you that you are [[free to go|shot]]\n
\nBefore you can speak up, another boy who was standing near you declares that he will never be a soldier. The lieutenant hits him several times until he is curled up in a ball on the ground.\n\nNext, they ask you what your answer is and you say that you will join. The lieutenant nods and puts an AK-47 in your hands. He holds a handgun against the side of your head and tells you that there is a test you must pass before you can be considered one of them.\n\n"You have to kill this boy", he says, pointing to the kid on the ground.\n\n[[Shoot him|firstkill]]\n\n[[Refuse|refusekill]]\n\n\n
\nAt night, you aren't sure whether you're sleeping or awake. When the drugs wear off, you start shaking and sweating. The memories come flooding back all at once, acting themselves out in front of you like little terror plays, plays that felt like dreams before, but are all too real now. It felt like somebody else did all that killing, but you will have to live with it.\n\nYou start to see the faces of the people you've killed. The guilt is overwhelming. But what other choice did you have?\n\n[[Stay awake all night|awake]]\n\n
\nYou make camp for the night. There's no food and no water, but you are able to dig a little ditch to sleep in, with some leaves to conceal your hiding spot. \n\nYou wake up the next morning extremely hungry.\n\n[[Go look for food in the next village|nextvillage2]]
\nYou throw a rock as hard as you can. It lands with a thud and rustles the trees far away from you. The soldier turns and starts heading towards it to investigate.\n\n[[Sneak up on him from behind|sneak]]\n\n[[Run for it|run]]\n\n
\nYou fire wildly at the soldier who gave you the gun. The gun bucks in your hand and you can barely hand on to it. Your bullets go everywhere, but you see several hit him in the chest. He falls, but before you can pick any new targets, you hear a burst of gunfire behind you and it all goes [[black|black]]\n\n
\nYou keep running, unsure of where you're [[going|going]]
\nYou hide, waiting behind some trees for what feels like hours. Your heart is beating so loudly in your chest that it feels like your hunters will hear it.\n\nThe soldiers fan out to cover more ground, searching for you with cold military efficiency. \n\nOne of them is quite far from the rest of the group and he's coming your way. \n\n[[Throw a rock to distract him|distract]]\n\n[[Wait until he gets close, then try to surprise him and take his gun|surprise]]\n\n
\nYou escape the house the same way you came in. A soldier is waiting outside for you. He smiles at you and tells you that you will now be joining their group.\n\n[[surrender|surrender]]\n\n[[Call for your father|father]]\n\n
\nYou shoot at the young boy. You have never fired a gun before, so bullets go everywhere. When the smoke clears and you get your wits back, you see that he's dead on the ground. \n\nYou feel sick to your stomach. This will be your life now.\n\nThe lieutenant smiles and [[welcomes you|soldierstart]]\n\n